Monday, April 20, 2009

If you're like most businesses, getting more qualified entries for your mailing list is one of the most important functions of you website. Beyond telling potential customers what you do and how to contact you, lead generation is critical and gives you the ability to contact your prospects over and over with valuable information and offers.

It doesn't seem like much to ask a visitor for their email address in exchange for sending them a monthly newsletter or some timely coupons, but all too often the sign up process is so laborious or asks so many questions that the willing visitor turns away, leaving you with no lead and them with no connection to your stream of information.

One technique for overcoming this "signup abandonment" is to clearly state how much value they'll receive and create a premium information offering that is even better... and still free.

While other articles at AdLinea go more in detail about what to offer, the article Helping Customers choose to sign up shows an example of a comparison or benefit chart that makes it obvious that one shouldn't just sign up for the free newsletter, but one should sign up for the preferred club so they get more out of the deal.

Once the visitor has decided to sign up and seen the benefits of the premium channel, they'll likely tolerate asking for just a few more bits of data in exchange for the premium (but still free) information. Those who balk at the idea of releasing anything more than just their email address have an easy fallback to sharing just that and still getting the newsletter.

Either way, you now have an entry in your mailing list and can ply the new prospect with offers and additional services to get them to complete the data you need when they are ready.